"Setup is starting Windows" but never does

I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

Bobby
Thu Jun 05 11:59:38 PDT 2008

Maybe, but start out by describing your system configuration
in detail; i.e., motherboard, hard drive, memory, cpu, etc,
and so on including all attached peripherals like printers
or usb devices.

The are literally thousands of possibilities and with the
extreme lack of information you have provide it is virtually
impossible to even guess at why this is happening.


churin wrote:
> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

Colin
Thu Jun 05 13:14:17 PDT 2008

After you access the load drivers funtion with F6, Setup should continue on
for a bit before coming back to install the drivers. Are you seeing that?
The drivers may not be getting installed or you might not be pointing Setup
to the right folder on the floppy.

"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and let
>the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process completes
>"Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns black and
>Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

R
Thu Jun 05 13:27:05 PDT 2008

Hi, Churin.

> black and Windows never starts.

How long is "never"? Sometimes it takes several minutes, maybe even a
half-hour. :>(

Does the hard drive blink now and then? Any other sign of life? If you
press the Reset button, what happens?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and let
> the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process completes
> "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns black and
> Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

Charlie
Thu Jun 05 16:52:47 PDT 2008

Do you have ATI graphics? There were problems with some ATI graphics cards.
See my blog post from 2006:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64/archive/2006/08/20/ATI-Graphics-Drivers-in-Fresh-Install.aspx

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and let
>the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process completes
>"Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns black and
>Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

Michael
Thu Jun 05 22:11:02 PDT 2008

churin wrote:
> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?
Please edit the txtsetup.sif on the amd64 folder on the cd.
find the osloadoptions item, remove the /noguiboot and add the /sos options.
(burn it to a new cd and) do setup again

churin
Fri Jun 06 08:54:32 PDT 2008

Sorry for late reply.
Mobo: MSI K8T Master2-FAR7
CUP: Opteron 244 x2
RAM: 4GB(2GBx2)REG/ECC
HDD: WD 500GB/SATA, Seagate 300GB/SATA
Opt: DVD RW Pioneer, DVD RW Hammer
Video: ATI Radeon X700Pro
FDD: Connected.
LAN: Broadcom, cable not connected.
USB2, Firewire, Realtek Audio(Disabled)

No Firewire device connected.
No USB device connected.
No sound card connected.
No printer is connected.

I installed WX64 before(about 4 years ago) so I am puzzled. I tried WX86
this time aroud just to see how it goes and no such problem. I wonder if
the SATA driver is incorrect but I am using the same FDD as was used
once before.


Bobby Johnson wrote:
> Maybe, but start out by describing your system configuration in detail;
> i.e., motherboard, hard drive, memory, cpu, etc, and so on including all
> attached peripherals like printers or usb devices.
>
> The are literally thousands of possibilities and with the extreme lack
> of information you have provide it is virtually impossible to even guess
> at why this is happening.
>
>
> churin wrote:
>> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
>> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
>> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
>> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

churin
Fri Jun 06 08:59:11 PDT 2008

I see FDD's LED brinking and hear ticking sound from the FDD for a
while, and the text mode process resumed, then "Setup is starting
Windows" is displayed.

Colin Barnhorst wrote:
> After you access the load drivers funtion with F6, Setup should continue
> on for a bit before coming back to install the drivers. Are you seeing
> that? The drivers may not be getting installed or you might not be
> pointing Setup to the right folder on the floppy.
>
> "churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
> news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
>> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
>> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
>> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?
>

churin
Fri Jun 06 09:20:09 PDT 2008

Yes, I do. Radeon X700Pro is used in the system but if this is the
cause, then I wonder how it can be fixed. The problem described in the
reference is not the same as mine.

Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
> Do you have ATI graphics? There were problems with some ATI graphics
> cards. See my blog post from 2006:
>
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64/archive/2006/08/20/ATI-Graphics-Drivers-in-Fresh-Install.aspx
>
>

churin
Fri Jun 06 09:23:39 PDT 2008

Michael wrote:
> churin wrote:
>> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
>> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
>> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
>> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?
> Please edit the txtsetup.sif on the amd64 folder on the cd.
> find the osloadoptions item, remove the /noguiboot and add the /sos
> options.
> (burn it to a new cd and) do setup again
Thanks for your response. I will try this as a last resort.

R
Fri Jun 06 09:46:28 PDT 2008

Hi, churin.

> I see FDD's LED brinking and hear ticking sound from the FDD for a while,

When Setup gets to the screen that asks for the floppy, read it carefully.
If you press Enter, Setup continues without loading any additional drivers.
You should press "S"; it will then read the floppy and present a list of
drivers that it finds there.

In my case (EPoX MF570sli mobo with nVidia chipset, onboard SATA and nForce
RAID - and ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB PCI Express graphics), Setup finds
two drivers. One is for SATA and the other for RAID, and both are labeled
"Required". I pick one and Setup installs it, then presents the previous
screen again. I press "S" a second time and see the same menu with the two
drivers. I pick the other one, Setup installs it, and I'm back to the
familiar screen. This time, I press Enter and Setup continues to the end of
the text phase, then reboots.

On this reboot, it tries for the first time to boot from my hard drive,
using the new drivers it has just installed. At this point, we have to be
on our toes during the boot, especially if we have multiple hard drives, to
be sure that it is trying to boot from the proper source and to the proper
Windows installation. We do not want it to boot from the floppy or from the
CD or from the other HD. And we don't want it to default to x86 if we are
trying to add x64 in a dual-boot. Since ALL the Windows installations are
listed by default with only the generic "Microsoft Windows" designation,
it's very easy for us humans to pick the wrong one. :>( Setup is pretty
smart about this, but it can be fooled.

> and the text mode process resumed, then "Setup is starting Windows" is
> displayed.

This is the point at which it can appear to hang for a loooong time with
little or no apparent activity. Give it time! Watch for random blinks of
the hard drive light, often so short that if we blink we miss them, and
often many seconds apart. I'm not sure what Setup is doing all this time,
but if you go get a cup of coffee (or lunch), you might find the Desktop on
your screen when you get back. ;<)

Again, as I asked earlier: How long is "never"? Please give us some sort
of estimate of how many minutes or hours you've waited.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:uAqKE5#xIHA.1980@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> I see FDD's LED brinking and hear ticking sound from the FDD for a while,
> and the text mode process resumed, then "Setup is starting Windows" is
> displayed.
>
> Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>> After you access the load drivers funtion with F6, Setup should continue
>> on for a bit before coming back to install the drivers. Are you seeing
>> that? The drivers may not be getting installed or you might not be
>> pointing Setup to the right folder on the floppy.
>>
>> "churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
>> news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
>>> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
>>> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
>>> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

Charlie
Fri Jun 06 11:37:10 PDT 2008

Follow the steps in the blog post, you should be able to get past the issue,
if that's the cause. The key is to get into safe mode and get a newer driver
than the one that's on the DVD, and this lets you proceed.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:e1K6xE$xIHA.2064@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Yes, I do. Radeon X700Pro is used in the system but if this is the cause,
> then I wonder how it can be fixed. The problem described in the reference
> is not the same as mine.
>
> Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
>> Do you have ATI graphics? There were problems with some ATI graphics
>> cards. See my blog post from 2006:
>>
>> http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64/archive/2006/08/20/ATI-Graphics-Drivers-in-Fresh-Install.aspx

churin
Fri Jun 06 13:44:02 PDT 2008

You stated *The key is to get into safe mode..". How can I get into safe
mode at that point? I am unable to install the OS because of the problem
as stated in my original post.

Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
> Follow the steps in the blog post, you should be able to get past the
> issue, if that's the cause. The key is to get into safe mode and get a
> newer driver than the one that's on the DVD, and this lets you proceed.
>

Charlie
Fri Jun 06 17:28:41 PDT 2008

If you aren't getting as far as described in the blog post I pointed you to,
then you don't have the issue I described. If you get to the point where the
installation reboots to begin going into graphical mode, then you DO have
enough to get to safe mode. Just press F8 and select safe mode, as I
described. If you don't get to the reboot stage, you have a different
problem.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:eXnUPYByIHA.4376@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> You stated *The key is to get into safe mode..". How can I get into safe
> mode at that point? I am unable to install the OS because of the problem
> as stated in my original post.
>
> Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
>> Follow the steps in the blog post, you should be able to get past the
>> issue, if that's the cause. The key is to get into safe mode and get a
>> newer driver than the one that's on the DVD, and this lets you proceed.
>>

churin
Fri Jun 06 18:47:24 PDT 2008

I do not know if I have the issue you described because I have not
gotten far enough. Thanks anyway for trying to help me.

Kue2
Mon Jun 09 08:10:41 PDT 2008

Try booting & installing with only gig of ram,then add the other two after
you install.
"churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and let
>the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process completes
>"Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns black and
>Windows never starts. Could anyone help?

churin
Fri Jun 13 08:09:30 PDT 2008

Hi, R.C.White:
Sorry for my late response. While trying to solve the problem I the data
drive became inaccessible so that I had to spend quite some times to
recover the lost data.
Anyway, here are my response:
I removed all HDDs except the one on which I want to install the XPx64.
I waited for one hour after the screen turned black from "The setup is
starting Windows"
.
R. C. White wrote:
> Hi, churin.
>
>> I see FDD's LED brinking and hear ticking sound from the FDD for a while,
>
> When Setup gets to the screen that asks for the floppy, read it
> carefully. If you press Enter, Setup continues without loading any
> additional drivers. You should press "S"; it will then read the floppy
> and present a list of drivers that it finds there.
>
> In my case (EPoX MF570sli mobo with nVidia chipset, onboard SATA and
> nForce RAID - and ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB PCI Express graphics),
> Setup finds two drivers. One is for SATA and the other for RAID, and
> both are labeled "Required". I pick one and Setup installs it, then
> presents the previous screen again. I press "S" a second time and see
> the same menu with the two drivers. I pick the other one, Setup
> installs it, and I'm back to the familiar screen. This time, I press
> Enter and Setup continues to the end of the text phase, then reboots.
>
> On this reboot, it tries for the first time to boot from my hard drive,
> using the new drivers it has just installed. At this point, we have to
> be on our toes during the boot, especially if we have multiple hard
> drives, to be sure that it is trying to boot from the proper source and
> to the proper Windows installation. We do not want it to boot from the
> floppy or from the CD or from the other HD. And we don't want it to
> default to x86 if we are trying to add x64 in a dual-boot. Since ALL
> the Windows installations are listed by default with only the generic
> "Microsoft Windows" designation, it's very easy for us humans to pick
> the wrong one. :>( Setup is pretty smart about this, but it can be
> fooled.
>
>> and the text mode process resumed, then "Setup is starting Windows" is
>> displayed.
>
> This is the point at which it can appear to hang for a loooong time with
> little or no apparent activity. Give it time! Watch for random blinks
> of the hard drive light, often so short that if we blink we miss them,
> and often many seconds apart. I'm not sure what Setup is doing all this
> time, but if you go get a cup of coffee (or lunch), you might find the
> Desktop on your screen when you get back. ;<)
>
> Again, as I asked earlier: How long is "never"? Please give us some
> sort of estimate of how many minutes or hours you've waited.
>
> RC

churin
Fri Jun 13 12:07:10 PDT 2008

Sorry for my late reply. For the last several days I was busy attempting
to recover lost data caused by my trouble-shooting work to solve the
subject problem. Getting back to the subject:

I tried many things and all failed to solved the problem so that I came
back to your suggestion.(Honestly speaking I did not put high priority
on your suggestion to try). I made a progress with one stick removed.
XPx64 is finally installed!!

The remaining problem is that when booting the process go into reboot
cycle right after Windows splash display. I found that this problem can
be cured by changing one of the two RAM sticks to an alternate slot for
single channel operation. WXPx86, W2K, WVTx86 and WVTx64 are also
installed in the same PC and they all work with the RAM in dual channel
operation.

Any further suggestion is appreciated.

I
Kue2 wrote:
> Try booting & installing with only gig of ram,then add the other two
> after you install.
> "churin" <churin@new.postalias> wrote in message
> news:OdI6ajzxIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> I have a SATA HDD and attempting to install WX64 on it. I press F6 and
>> let the drivers installed and after the text mode of install process
>> completes "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed. Then screen turns
>> black and Windows never starts. Could anyone help?
>

churin
Fri Jun 13 12:12:44 PDT 2008

A break-through was made by removing one of the two RAM sticks, but
there is a remaining problem. For the details please see one of the
other branches of this thread.

churin wrote:
> Hi, R.C.White:
> Sorry for my late response. While trying to solve the problem I the data
> drive became inaccessible so that I had to spend quite some times to
> recover the lost data.
> Anyway, here are my response:
> I removed all HDDs except the one on which I want to install the XPx64.
> I waited for one hour after the screen turned black from "The setup is
> starting Windows"
> .
> R. C. White wrote:
>> Hi, churin.
>>
>>> I see FDD's LED brinking and hear ticking sound from the FDD for a
>>> while,
>>
>> When Setup gets to the screen that asks for the floppy, read it
>> carefully. If you press Enter, Setup continues without loading any
>> additional drivers. You should press "S"; it will then read the floppy
>> and present a list of drivers that it finds there.
>>
>> In my case (EPoX MF570sli mobo with nVidia chipset, onboard SATA and
>> nForce RAID - and ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB PCI Express graphics),
>> Setup finds two drivers. One is for SATA and the other for RAID, and
>> both are labeled "Required". I pick one and Setup installs it, then
>> presents the previous screen again. I press "S" a second time and see
>> the same menu with the two drivers. I pick the other one, Setup
>> installs it, and I'm back to the familiar screen. This time, I press
>> Enter and Setup continues to the end of the text phase, then reboots.
>>
>> On this reboot, it tries for the first time to boot from my hard
>> drive, using the new drivers it has just installed. At this point, we
>> have to be on our toes during the boot, especially if we have multiple
>> hard drives, to be sure that it is trying to boot from the proper
>> source and to the proper Windows installation. We do not want it to
>> boot from the floppy or from the CD or from the other HD. And we
>> don't want it to default to x86 if we are trying to add x64 in a
>> dual-boot. Since ALL the Windows installations are listed by default
>> with only the generic "Microsoft Windows" designation, it's very easy
>> for us humans to pick the wrong one. :>( Setup is pretty smart about
>> this, but it can be fooled.
>>
>>> and the text mode process resumed, then "Setup is starting Windows"
>>> is displayed.
>>
>> This is the point at which it can appear to hang for a loooong time
>> with little or no apparent activity. Give it time! Watch for random
>> blinks of the hard drive light, often so short that if we blink we
>> miss them, and often many seconds apart. I'm not sure what Setup is
>> doing all this time, but if you go get a cup of coffee (or lunch), you
>> might find the Desktop on your screen when you get back. ;<)
>>
>> Again, as I asked earlier: How long is "never"? Please give us some
>> sort of estimate of how many minutes or hours you've waited.
>>
>> RC